Exceptional X-Men #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #2
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE MAIN CAST:
Kate Pryde is still “Kate”, despite giving her name to Trista as “Kitty” in the previous issue. She doesn’t want to get dragged back into the mutant world by mentoring Trista, and when she stumbles upon some more mutant teenagers, she decides that the solution is just to introduce them to one another and leave them to get on with it. Such is her enthusiasm for the mundane world, she actually wants to go and watch a complete stranger’s high school soccer game. When asked about her own interest in sport, she defaults to talking about dance, but awkwardly acknowledges “some martial arts stuff”.
Kate does step in to calm the situation and get Thao and Alex to safety when a fight breaks out, but immediately gives Thao a dressing down for escalating the situation.
Trista Marshall is pestering Kate to remain friends with her, and seems to be looking for a mutant mentor.
Thao and Alex are the two new members of the core cast, making their in-story debut (though they were on the cover of issue #1). Thao is playing in the Senn High School soccer team – remarkably, this is a real school, shown in its actual colours, although they stopped short of using its bulldog logo. She’s unwilling to tolerate Alex being bullied, and starts frantically making the “Midnight M” sign at him. When he doesn’t respond – and doesn’t seem to want her help – she charges in anyway to fight the bullies. This is apparently fairly normal behaviour for her.
Thao seems to have phasing powers somewhat similar to Kate’s, although she turns invisible when phasing, and can apparently get stuck in an object at least for short periods without harm. She can’t control her powers.
Alex apparently doesn’t go to the school, but has come to watch his friend Dani play. He’s a visible mutant thanks to his skin and eye colour, which seems to change from page to page – but less commonly from panel to panel. A pale gold skin tone seems to be his default state. He’s an empath who just wants to be left in peace, but his powers cause some people around him to start uncontrollably rambling about their inner lives and hang-ups.
Alex seems to have no interest in the mutant community, and doesn’t recognise the Midnight M sign (which he takes to be some sort of gang sign). He seems to broadly agree with Kate that Thao caused a pointless fight. He used to play chess, but quit when he became a visible mutant – it seems like he doesn’t go out much, though he’s more socially isolated than actually afraid to be seen in public.
The basic dynamic is fairly clearly set up on page 21 when the three teenagers meet for the first time. Thao wants to be an activist. Trista wants a mutant social circle. Alex finds being a mutant a bit of a nuisance. All three wind up going back to Kate anyway.
Emma Frost shows up at the end of the issue – after briefly looking in on Kate a couple of times during the story – to take the teens off Kate’s hands. But other scenes suggest her main interest is actually in roping Kate into some project. Still, Emma’s interest in training young mutants has generally been played as sincere since the 1990s, so it’s probably not just a means to an end.
THE SUPPORTING CAST:
Nina is Kate’s date – the same girl she failed to meet last issue when she got the date wrong. She mentioned last issue that she was working on the date they’d agreed, which is why they’ve rescheduled. Nina takes Kate to watch her cousin Grace play high school soccer, which is tremendously useful in terms of getting Kate to the plot but, um, is this something people actually do in America?
Dani is the girl that Alex came to watch play football. She’s broadly minded to leave Alex to deal with things his way.
Lulu’s Tavern has another barman who we didn’t see last issue, and doesn’t get a name.
OTHER REFERENCES:
Page 5. Kate is apparently monologuing to camera again, as she did twice in the previous issue.
Page 7 panel 1: “Vamos otra vez… peleano con el puño al aire…” “Let’s go again, fighting with our fists in the air.” This is the song Alex is listening to:
Page 17 panel 3: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” From Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Alex seems unimpressed by Thao quoting it at him.
Page 22. This is a flashback to Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980), Kitty’s first appearance and the first time she met Ororo. Specifically, it’s an expansion of a conversation that appears in three panels of that story on pages 13-14. The actual dialogue is new, but the original scene does feature Storm telling Kitty about the X-Men, and then cuts away to Peter and Logan for a while, so this fits in quite happily.
@moo
No, I’m thinking of an earlier moment in the relationship spectrum, when you’ve been talking to someone and are just starting to see if there’s something there and you’ll take any excuse to finally get to hang out with them.
@Matt Teri
Oh. Well, personally, I haven’t done anything like that. I’ve never wanted to give any woman who I was still getting to know the impression that I was desperate to spend time with her.
But I’m hardly a dating guru.
@Matt Terl – Sorry, I hope that didn’t come out wrong. I wasn’t trying to insinuate that you were desperate in your situations. It’s just that I’ve met some really shitty women in my day (and before anyone gets on my case, yes, men can be shitty too, but I don’t date men), so I’ve developed certain rules that I tend to follow.
And as you can see, they’ve worked out rather well for me as I’m posting on a comic book blog comment section on a Saturday night.
I think it boils down to your own personality and dating preferences.
I think that for a lot of people, the idea of attending some not-obvious event as an excuse to hang out with someone that you’re interested in is perfectly reasonable.
It’s definitely not ‘weird’, even if Nina hedges a little by apologizing for being weird. It’s just not the sort of thing that everybody would do, and she’s not sure if she’s extending the invitation to someone who finds the idea acceptable.
The way I see it, an activity isn’t ‘weird'(in the general sense) if lots of people casually do it, regardless of whether there’s another group that find it odd. So you can validly feel it’s a strange thing to do, but I don’t think you can posit it as a general truth, because there are a lot of people who’d disagree with you.
“I think it boils down to your own personality and dating preferences.”
No, it doesn’t. Look, we’re talking about whether something is a common practice or not. It’s very simple. It’s either common or it isn’t, and two adults electing to attend a high school soccer game for their first date is absolutely *not* common. It doesn’t matter what you personally think of that idea. It doesn’t matter what I personally think of that idea. An individual’s own personality and preferences say nothing in answer to the question of whether something is common within a given population or not, and that’s the question that Paul raised.
“The way I see it, an activity isn’t ‘weird'(in the general sense) if lots of people casually do it.”
Yes, but if we’re taking “lots” to mean “a significant number of people within a given population,” then that doesn’t apply here. I mean, are you seriously arguing that “lots of adults attend high school soccer matches on a first date in America?” If not, then what are we arguing about?
@Moo
I mean, is it in the Top 5 things to do on a date? We can bicker over the definition of ‘lots’, but I’d say that enough people do it so that at the very least it’s not unusual.
You’re acting like it’s some kind of anomaly. I’m saying you’re wrong and that yes, ‘lots’ of people do it. You seem to think that the only point in going on dates is to make progress towards getting laid. For lots of people, doing low key stuff like going to a high school sporting event is very low risk/high reward if, rather, your goal is to get to know a person better.
I suppose there are some people who view a ‘first date’ as an overt attempt to show a person that you’re eager to pursue them romantically and thus, ‘very romantic things’ should take place (flowers, candles, nice restaurant), which should then lead to very romantic physical interactions.
But there are ‘lots’ who find the stereotypical trappings of that kind of ‘date’ to be too high-stakes, too overt, and would rather do something very low-stakes to ease into an exploration of the chemistry and connection you might have with someone. And if one of those people has a personal connection to some specific benign social event (my brother plays for this sports team, my family goes to this church, my mom volunteers at this state park), then attending said event is a perfectly natural place for one person to suggest to another if you suspect they’re of a similar mindset.
Acting like this is some kind of oddball, fringe behavior is just…well, weird on your part.
No. You’re the one making that assumption, not me. Or rather, you’re making that assumption about me. I’m equating with “weird” in this discussion with “uncommon,” whereas you appear to believe that I’m equating it with “abnormal behavior” and/or “these people need to have their heads examined”
And because of this, you’ve been tirelessly lawyering on behalf of people who do things on first dates that fall outside the realm of the usual when there’s no need to. I’m not attacking them. I’m not attacking you. I’m simply pointing out that Kitty and Nina’s choice of first date activity isn’t common. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
Furthermore, stop generalizing this argument. This isn’t about low-key dates in general or two adults doing stuff “like” going to a high school soccer game on a first date. It’s about doing exactly *that* on a first date. That is not common it all, and you are objectively wrong by claiming otherwise.
And since you’re still so hung up on my “getting laid” remark, I’m surprised I have to explain, but that was mostly tongue in cheek. Not entirely tongue in cheek, but mostly. I thought it’d be a funny way to make my point, but boy did you take it to heart.
Look, if you’re deeply religious, I wish you’d just say so. You don’t have to be specific, but I’m starting to feel like I’ve gotten on the wrong side of a Mormon or something here.
I think this line of conversation was exhausted a while back, so I’m going to ask people to leave it there.